After eight months of construction, GE Financial Services, Powerlight (a subsidiary of SunPower Corporation) and Catavento, have inaugurated the 11 MW Serpa solar plant, located in the Alentejo, 200 km south of Lisbon.
The facility, which was purchased by GE last year at approximately $75 m, has been designed and built by Powerlight, who will also maintain the plant. Catavento is the project's developer and local partner. The area occupied by the plant is equivalent to more than 80 football fields and will save more than 30,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.
“This project is successful because Portugal’s sunshine is plentiful, the solar power technology is proven, government policies are supportive, and we are investing and delivering under GE’s ecomagination initiative to help our customers meet their environmental challenges.” said Kevin Walsh, Managing Director and leader of renewable energy at GE Energy Financial Service. “The Serpa project is a springboard for other solar power investments we’re pursuing in Europe through project acquisitions, project finance, development capital and access to solar modules through GE Energy.”, added Andrew Marsden, Managing Director of GE Energy Financial Services’ European Operations.
This is definitely good news for Portugal, a southern country with plenty of potential still to be developed.
For additional information:
www.ge.com
www.powerlight.com
www.sunpowercorp.com
www.catavento.pt
